Leonard Lawrence

Leonard Lawrence (30 June 1940-26 December 1967) was a US Marine Corps private who was responsible for the murder of Gunnery Sergeant Ronald Hartman on 25 December 1967 before shooting himself.

Biography
Leonard Lawrence was from Colorado, and he was drafted into the US Marine Corps at the time of the Vietnam War in 1967. He was overweight and incompetent, and he could not perform many of the tasks asked of him during basic training, leading to Gunnery Sergeant Ronald Hartman taking a disliking to him. Lawrence was nicknamed "Gomer Pyle" after the naive mechanic from The Andy Griffith Show, a popular show at the time, and he was insulted by Hartman and abused by his fellow marines due to his overweight stature and his incompetence as a marine. After Lawrence was caught saving jelly donut stolen from the mess hall, Hartman decided to punish the whole platoon for Lawrence's failures, and the platoon gagged him with a rag one night before taking turns beating him with a blunt weapon made by putting soap inside of a rag. Lawrence was inspired to become a better marine, but he went "Section Eight", talking to his rifle. His former squad leader James T. Davis had previously attempted to train Lawrence on the orders of Hartman, but he took part in the beating, hitting him many times; Lawrence went insane as a result.

Murder of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman
Shortly after he was informed of his attachment to a rifle platoon in Vietnam on graduation day, he planned to kill Hartman, taking an M14 rifle and loading it with full metal jacket bullets. Davis found him in the bathroom while he was on guard duty, and Lawrence began shouting and performing rifle movements, leading to everyone waking up. Hartman himself woke up and entered the bathroom, and he asked Lawrence to put the gun down. He began to shout at Lawrence in his typical fashion before Lawrence pulled the trigger on him, shooting him in the chest and killing him. Lawrence aimed the gun at Davis, but Davis asked him to go easy. Lawrence backed up, sat down on a toilet seat, and proceeded to shoot himself through the palate.